Ahmed Tharwat
BY AHMED THARWAT
Arab dictators get a job for life. When they are removed prematurely from their jobs they have a heck of a time handling their forced retirements. In their first career as dictators, they don’t usually get a job review every now and then.
In a democratic world, leaders usually get a job review after a few years, and once they leave office, they have to explore their options and develop new skills. Some, like President Carter, go into humanitarian work to do all the things they couldn’t do while in office. Others, like Clinton, went on a talking circuit to recoup all the money they spent on litigation while in office. Or Blair, who has gone on tour like a political mercenary. Others go back to the private sector as lobbyists or consultants to make hard-earned government experience available for a price. Most go on to write obligatory presidential memoirs full of biographical information that no one reads. However, Arab leaders don’t have this luxury; their job is for life, and they don’t really learn a marketable skill other than oppressing and controlling their respective populations, which is not the sort of thing that an ex-dictator usually puts on a resume. They never get a chance to explore their other personal potentialities. This limits their chance in the job market once they leave office, which usually ends due to an act of God, or a human act, like assassination, or a coup. There are a few jobs open for ex-dictators, which makes it hard to pursue a second career. Let’s dig into Arab dictators potential, career advice for a second chance after being forced out of their first secure job.
Lets start with Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, the one whose demise inspired the Arab Spring that caused an oversupply of ex-dictators looking for a second career. Ben Ali, born in 1936, stayed in his job for 23 years without any job review; he ran the most oppressive police state in the area. Ben Ali saw the writing on the wall of the Arab Spring, escaped with billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia as a permanent houseguest of the royal family. He died in exile alone and neglected. With some attitude adjustments and training, he would have been most qualified to start as a hairdresser as a second career.
Move on to Muḥammad Ḥosni Said Mubarak of Egypt, who was born in 1928, and, not coincidentally, was also a military officer and then politician. He was president of Egypt from October 1981 until February 2011. After 30 years in the job, he got a lousy job review from millions of Egyptians who went to the streets and squares to convince him to leave his office and try a second career, and he was ultimately forced into early retirement. Although his health was a national security top secret issue while in office, his illness became a public spectacle and a pretext to avoid imprisonment, and he finally died in a 7-star prison. He would have been a prime candidate for a new career in acting, starring in a film like “The Egyptian Patient.”
Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, was sworn in in June of 2012, and just a year later, he was fired through a military coup cooked up by General Al Sisi. Staying in his job for only one year, he never really got a chance to develop any skills. His inexperience, naiveté, and incompetence cost him the presidency. Now he is being used as a poster boy for military propaganda and Brotherhood bashing. He died in prison, from health neglect and oppressive legal procedures, before he could even know what crimes he had committed. This American-trained engineer would have found great happiness in a career as an Imam in a Mosque in New Jersey.
Right after Morsi came Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was born in 1954 and took office in June 2014 at the age of 60. He graduated from the Egyptian Military Academy and numerous Command Staff colleges, as well as the U.S. War College in 2006. With his intelligence gathering and spying experience, he courted a Photoshop popular uprising against President Morsi, got a mandate to get rid of the Brotherhood, and kept Egypt from becoming Syria. Not since the time of the Pharaohs has a dictator controlled all powers in a country like el-Sisi. Ancient Egyptian pharaohs built statues for the pharaoh, putting their names on walls and tombs. This new Egyptian pharaoh puts his name on tall buildings. Abdelfattah Al-Sisi took this ancient Egyptian art to another level; like Trump, he puts his name on everything: towers, buildings, bridges, streets, hats, chocolates, and underwear. His name is now synonymous with Egypt, and the Egypt’s el-Sisi does what he pleases. He is always coming up with grand schemes that are never completed: bridges to nowhere; 60 billion dollars for a new capital city in the middle of the desert; and, my favorite, the one with the biggest media hysteria propaganda hype, “the gift to the world from the mother of the world’” shouted official newspaper headlines: the digging of the $8 billion new Suez Canal, that has never been used. If he can sell a city that was never built and a canal that was never finished, el-Sisi should prepare himself for a new job as a plumber who would destroy your house to fix a faucet.
Then there is Ali Abd Allah Saleh, of Yemen, who was born in 1942, and, yes, you guessed it, was a Yemeni military officer. He led a coup against the government of North Yemen in 1962 and became president in 1978, and then in 1990 he became president of a reunified Yemen. He is a resilient guy, and although he was almost killed by a bomb during the Arab Spring uprising, he survived with just burns. He escaped to Saudi Arabia for a tune-up job, shifted alliances, came back and re-aligned himself with the Al Houthi minority. He described politics in Yemen as dancing on the heads of snakes. He was killed in a tribal sectarian war; he would have had better success in another career as a camel trader.
Not to mention Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who at 50 has been the Syrian undisputed leader since 2000, succeeding his more rounded, wiser father, Ḥafiz al-Assad, who had ruled Syria from 1971. In spite of early hopes, his troubles have mounted, but he used brute force and the sectarian card to keep his job while losing everything else. He was forced out and escaped to Russia under one condition: to stay away from politics. The former eye doctor should be thinking about going back to his old job, if they would accept him back.
Let’s not forget Muammar al-Qaddafi, the quirky Libyan leader who was born in 1942 and ruled from 1969–2011. He was elusive and known for his nonsensical and hyperbolic_speeches—zinga, zinga! He tried to weather the Arab Spring storm, went to the streets to lecture the Libyan people about how they should manage the real revolution, his tragic end came from above through Western bombs to end his chance to develop a second career as a speech writer.
Moving west, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, born March 2, 1937, Oujda, Morocco, a Moroccan-born Algerian politician who became president of Algeria in 1999. Already limited by fragile health, Bouteflika suffered a serious stroke in April 2013 and was rarely seen in public afterward. Even so, in the election of April 2014, he sought a fourth term as president, although all his campaigning was done by allies and associates. As expected, Bouteflika won. He received more than 81 percent of the vote. At age 78, he was brought in a wheelchair to accept his presidency. Not so optimistic about finding a second career at this age, but Bouteflika, with all his diverse background and fighting spirit he would be suited as a godfather for drug smugglers.
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan was born
Jan. 7, 1944, in Hosh Wad Banaqa, Sudan. A Sudanese military officer who led a revolt that overthrew the elected government of Sudan in 1989. He served as president of Sudan from 1993. On July 14, 2008, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) called for an arrest warrant to be issued against Bashir. He was cited for crimes committed against humanity, war crimes, and genocide in Darfur. With this unique, colorful experience for a second career, he would be most qualified as a Safari Tour Guide for rich Americans looking for Trophy hunting experience.
Arab kings are the hardest ones to find a second career; being a king doesn’t require any vocational skills. King Abdullah II of Jordan, born in 1962. He succeeded his father, the late King Hussein, as king of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on Feb. 7, 1999. Little known outside Jordan before becoming king, Abdullah has surprised many observers by displaying a natural flair for a job many said he could never handle. His military background served him well; a pilot by training, an urban legend fighting ISIS after the burning of a Jordanian pilot. Being the head of a small, fragile country, he has a knack for maneuvering and good diplomacy. He would have no problem finding a second career in the Las Vegas gambling business!
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the president of the UAE, and he and the ruling families of Dubai are frequently described as leading dictatorial or authoritarian regimes. Characteristics of this rule include the suppression of dissent, a sophisticated surveillance state, political arrests, and significant military involvement in regional conflicts in Libya, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and genocide in Gaza, A second carer for Bin Zayed once he is separated from his crown and wealth, would be a global arms dealer.
Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), young and ambitious, is currently the de facto ruler and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. MBS is transforming traditional Saudi Arabian society overnight, establishing a ministry of entertainment, a hub for world entertainers and second-rate artists, “turning Mecca into Las Vegas” through an extensive modernization and commercial development of the city. Facing lots of criticism and also attempts on his life, MBS has a normalized relationship with Israel, and an abnormal relationship with Saudi history and tradition. According to US intelligence, he ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi government; Khashoggis body was dismembered on October 2, 2018. If MBS got away with dismembering Khashoggi, he can’t get away with dismembering the holy site, Mecca. MBS had better prepare himself for another career cultivating his image as a bone saw carpenter. Arab dictators should be working now on their new resumes…!
Ahmed Tharwat/ Host/
producer Arab American TV show BelAhdan
His Articles are published in National and International publications
Blogs at “Notes from America” www.ahmediaTV.com
Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/ahmediaTV
